Why SEO #0 Shouldn’t be Your Goal

Many people want to reach position zero in the search engines today. This is the position occupied by the snippet of information that appears above the first result in some searches. Honestly, this isn’t something that you should be aiming for.

Why you Shouldn’t Worry About Position Zero

There are several reasons why you shouldn’t worry about ranking zero, including:

Position zero can be impossible to obtain because Google can’t display some content as snippets. If you really want this position you’ll need to create step-by-step instructions, definitions that don’t appear in dictionaries, questions you can answer in a few sentences, price breakdowns, and best-of lists. Above all, make sure your content is both worthwhile and easy for Google to turn into a snippet without lowering your content’s quality of the content.

Position zero is unpredictable even when you spend a lot of time, effort, and resources attempting to attain it because you simply don’t know what Google will choose – even to the point that the result may change throughout the day.

Ranking zero can cost you clicks because you’ve already given the user all the basic information they need. Of course, this means they’ll miss out on interesting and useful content that delves deeper into the topic. Had these users read your content, you may have been able to pique their interest and gain leads.

Google search constantly changes from day to day as they update their algorithm, including ranking zero. You never know if they may even go so far as to start using a completely different way to present their audience with this information – something that would have an even longer reaching impact on your strategy. This is why your best strategy is to create a lot of evergreen content that you can build up to show Google that you have a long history online of providing high-quality, valuable information. Of course, you need this evergreen content to continue receiving views and engagement so it can serve its purpose in your SEO strategy. This is something that should happen when the content continues to rank. Herein lies another reason why you shouldn’t simply set your goal as ranking zero because you don’t want there to come a day when your website simply floats off into oblivion.

When you Should Seek Position Zero

This shouldn’t dissuade you from attempting to reach this position, but it should persuade you to be smart about doing so. One of the times when this position could be very beneficial is when it provides greater visibility. It may lead to fewer clicks though since many users will click on a different result because they know that the featured content isn’t what they’re looking for. Ultimately this not only lowers your bounce rate, but it also means you’ll get fewer low-quality leads.

If you choose to go for ranking zero there are some best practices you should follow, including:

Only do this with content Google can create snippets with.

Optimize your content for long-tail keywords that are at least 6 words long and contains a question word.

Properly notate your page’s content by using the right code and tagging techniques.

What You Should Do

Don’t spend all your time trying to obtain position zero. Instead, work on your overall SERP landscape so you can achieve high organic rankings and some traffic from PPC. By taking up more landscape you’ll improve brand awareness, bring users the most relevant content for their queries and prevent wasted time on impossible goals. These are all things that we at Local SEO Tampa Company can help you with so contact us today.